FARM BLOC VICTORY

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 75, 25 September 1942, Page 5

FARM BLOC VICTORY

ANTI-INFLATION MEASURE AMENDED

WASHINGTON, September 23,

The farm bloc won a major victory over the Administration when the House of Representatives amended the anti-inflation measure and included a requirement that all farm labour costs shall be computed in agricultural parity prices, thereby permitting higher farm prices and ceilings. The House yielded to overwhelming "pressure by the farm bloc, in spite of a warning by the Democratic leader, Mr. McCormack, that President Roosevelt would veto the measure.

The effect of the House's amendment would be a rise in the parity base of 12 per cent, above the present level. Fearing a similar defeat in the Senate, the leaders of the Administration made strenuous efforts to compromise with the farm bloc, but the latter had accumulated such powerful support that Senator Barkley asked that the discussion be deferred until tomorrow.

The "New York Times," in a leader, states: "The President and the nation met with a serious defeat when the House rejected an urgent request to place a ceiling on farm prices less than 110 per cent, of parity, while in the Senate, the Administration, facing a similar defeat, called a recess to seek a compromise. This irresponsible behaviour of Congress which, under pressure from the farm bloc, recklessly disregarded public interest in a period of national crisis, is causing deep anxiety. Congress deliberately chose to pervert a measure intended to control inflation into one promoting price advance. Under the limelight of intense national attention, Congress has let the President and let the country down. If it persists in this course, President Roosevelt can do only one thing—veto the Bill."